"Our country is going backwards": Millions earning same as decade ago and three more years of misery to come

The rising cost of living and pitiful pay increases has resulted in a spending squeeze for many families across the country

Soaring inflation has left millions of workers earning the same as they were a decade ago, figures have revealed.
The rising cost of living and pitiful pay increases has resulted in a spending squeeze for many families across the country.
The result is that, once inflation is split out, the average worker earned £11.21 an hour in 2012 - roughly the same as in 2003.
The finding came as Bank of England Sir Mervyn King warned households face at least another three years of wage-busting living costs.
The Bank’s target is to keep inflation near to 2%, but it forecast it would stay above that level until early 2016.
Sir Mervyn, who will be replaced by Canadian Mark Carney later this year, said the Bank would tolerate high inflation to aid the recovery.
He said: “Attempting to bring inflation back to target sooner would risk derailing the recovery and undershooting the target in the medium-term.
“In the short run we’ll have to accommodate this, it’s not desirable, but that’s the hand we have to play,” he added.